In general, when a slide fastener is attached to a fastener-attached product, such as clothing or a bag, a fastener tape of the slide fastener and the fastener-attached product are sewn together using a sewing machine, whereby the fastener tape and fastener-attached product are sewn by a sewing thread.
There is known a slide fastener (hereinafter, referred to as “waterproof slide fastener”) having a waterproof property capable of preventing liquid from intruding into a fastener back side from a fastener front side under the condition that element rows are coupled as a whole.
When such a waterproof slide fastener is attached to the fastener-attached product, the following problem may occur. That is, when the sewing is performed for the waterproof slide fastener in the same manner as for a common type slide fastener, needle holes are formed by a needle (sewing machine needle) in the fastener tape or fastener-attached product although the fastener tape or fastener-attached product can be sewn together, disadvantageously allowing water intrusion through the needle holes or a sewing thread inserted into the needle hole, which results in deterioration of the waterproof property.
Thus, in conventional approaches, welding technique such as high-frequency welding or thermal welding is sometimes used, in place of sewing technique, for attachment of the waterproof slide fastener to the fastener-attached product.
Further, the welding technique used for attachment of the slide fastener can prevent an appearance defect which may be caused when the attachment is performed by the sewing technique. For example, when the attachment of the slide fastener is performed using the sewing technique, an appearance defect such as formation of a sewing line of the sewing thread or a phenomenon (sometimes called “puckering”) in which a pair of fastener stringers are symmetrically curved outward in a tape width direction; on the other hand, the use of the welding technique for the attachment of the slide fastener can prevent such an appearance defect. Thus, the welding technique is sometimes used when the slide fastener is attached to a product required to have excellence in appearance or a product having excellent design.
An example of a method for attaching the slide fastener to the fastener-attached product by using the welding technique is described in, e.g., JP 4814391 B (Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1 discloses a slide fastener attachment method capable of attaching, with a low defect rate, the slide fastener to a target member (hereinafter, referred to as “fastener receiving member”), such as a cloth member to which the fastener is attached in a desired curve pattern such that the slide fastener is curved in a tape width direction. Specifically, the slide fastener is attached as follows.
First, a template is used to curve the slide fastener into a desired curve pattern, and an adhesive sheet is attached to a front surface of a fastener tape of the slide fastener. Subsequently, an iron is used to heat the fastener tape to temporarily attach the adhesive sheet to the fastener tape. Then, hot press is applied, from a tape back surface side, to the fastener tape to the front surface of which the adhesive sheet has been temporarily attached, followed by cool press. As a result, a curved slide fastener having a desired curve pattern fixed by the adhesive sheet can be obtained.
Then, the obtained curved slide fastener is welded to the fastener receiving member. Specifically, first, a hot melt based on thermoplastic resin or rubber is formed on a back surface of the fastener receiving member. Then, an opening (pocket opening) having a shape corresponding to the curve pattern of the slide fastener is formed in an area where the hot melt of the fastener receiving member is formed.
Subsequently, the curved slide fastener is fixed to a template. At this time, the slide fastener is adhered to or fitted in the template such that the tape back surface of the fastener tape contacts the template. Then, the fastener receiving member is positioned such that the back surface of the fastener receiving member faces the slide fastener at the front surface side of the slide fastener fixed to the template and that the opening of the fastener receiving member is disposed corresponding to the element rows of the slide fastener. Then, an iron or the like is used to heat the hot melt to thereby temporarily fix the fastener receiving member and slide fastener.
After that, as illustrated in FIGS. 30(A) and 30(B), the fastener receiving member and slide fastener which have been temporarily fixed to each other are pressed from the front surface side of a fastener receiving member 100 using a high-frequency welder, or hot/cool-press machine.
At this time, since a slider is attached to the slide fastener, the pressing/welding is performed in two steps so as to prevent the slider from interfering with the press process. That is, as a first step, as illustrated in FIG. 30(A), in a state where the slider on the slide fastener is placed near one end portion side of the element rows, the pressing/welding is performed for an area including the fastener receiving member 100 and the other end portion side of the slide fastener.
Subsequently, the slider is slid to the other end portion side of the element rows, and, as a second step, as illustrated in FIG. 30(B), the pressing/welding is performed for an area including the fastener receiving member 100 and one end portion side of the slide fastener. At this time, in order for the slide fastener to be welded to the fastener receiving member 100 over the entire length thereof, the pressing/welding in the second step is performed so as to generate overlap between welding portions formed in the first and second steps. As a result, as illustrated in FIG. 31, the fastener receiving member 100 to which the slide fastener has been welded through the hot melt can be obtained.
By using the above slide fastener attachment method according to Patent Document 1, it is possible to attach, by welding, the slide fastener with a desired curve pattern to the fastener receiving member without sewing even in a state where the slider is attached to the slide fastener.